Gig Rundown: NSTF Awards Dinner

 Gig Rundown: NSTF Awards Dinner

THE NSTF AWARDS:

ULTRA continued their relationship with the NSTF - The National Science and Technology Forum - by creating the Cape Town leg of the NSTF Awards.

The NSTF continued with the hybrid format of the awards gala event this year. 

There were two gala dinners taking place simultaneously, one in Cape Town and another in Johannesburg. 

The event was also broadcast live to an online audience from both cities. 

The broadcast of the event happened via the NSTF YouTube channel.

The Gear:

Ultra provided a complete technical solution, consisting of staging, a custom designed and  set, LED video panels, Projection screens and projectors, lighting and audio.

Audio consisted of:

 4 x JBL VRX 918 single 18" subs.

 4 x VRX 932 LAP mid-high cabinets.

 2 x Yamaha DZR10-D 10" speakers for delays.

There were also 2 x Electrovoice Everse 8 8"speakers for low profile frontfills. 

Band monitors on stage were 4 more Yamaha DZR10-D 10".

The main microphones for this show were a pair of lecturn microphones.

I have been utilising two gooseneck microphones on every show I do now.

I find it lends a bit of versatility to the sound to have two different positions, and you have built-in redundancy.

All audio was controlled with a Midas M32r and a Midas DL251 stagebox.

The Band:

Each venue had their own entertainment, in JHB it was an operatic act, and here in Cape Town we were blessed to have The Ploemies as our pre-show entertainment.

Backline was also provided by Ultra Events, we supplied a DW drumkit with Zildjian cymbals, an Ampeg SVT-IV amp head powering an Ampeg 4 x 10 cab, and a Fender Deluxe guitar amp.

I chose to do a minimal microphone setup for the band, as it had to be cleared away fairly quickly before the awards dinner.

Here is a picture of my input list. We didn't end up using the Axient Mics at all so they are not worth mentioning for this gig.

Setup:

Here is a short video of me setting up the stage for the band:

The Awards:

The main technical challenge of the NSTF Awards was the video link created between the JHB and Cape Town events.

The two-way video call was a V-call, a video call that takes place in the VMix video software.

Mix minus and other busses:

When creating the video call, its important to not send the incoming audio and video back to itself, so we have to create busses.

A bus is an alternate route that we can send audio and video to, to avoid looping.

A common term used in broadcast for this is a Mix Minus.

This is basically a final mix that you send to a source "minus" the source itself.

Pic sourced from JKaudio

Challenges:

Here in Cape Town, we had to ensure that we did not send the audio or video feed JHB was sending us, back to them.

Likewise in JHB, they had to ensure they did not loop our feed back to us. 

The only area that was a slight cause of concern during rehearsals was that when the JHB audio was played over the PA system in our room, the lecturn microphones picked up some of the audio and broadcast it back. 

A quick session of muting and unmuting the feeds between the JHB and CT venues was worked out, and the event ran smooth as silk.

On to the Next One...

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